Revisiting the Beijing Spring Protests, 18 Years Later

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When Craig Calhoun went
to Beijing in the spring of 1989 to teach cultural studies to Chinese students,
he had little idea that he would someday write a book focusing exclusively on
China. Though interested in the country, he was not a sinologist, and besides,
he was there to help launch an America-sponsored English-language program at a
Chinese university.

But then destiny intervened to take him in a new direction. An expert on
popular politics, social movements, and political protests, Calhoun soon found
himself drawn to the capital city's burgeoning democracy movement. To his
delight (and later despair), he was able to observe firsthand how this movement
got started, gathered momentum, broke through the limits of previous rebellions
against the Chinese government, faltered, found renewal in hunger strikes and
dramatic symbols—and then was brutally crushed by military force.

Using his knowledge of democracy movements elsewhere, Calhoun could analyze
this turbulent interlude in Chinese politics from within a comparative
framework to say something about how it relates to institutions such as civil
society, the media and the public sphere, and democracy. The result was a book,
Neither Gods nor
Emperors: Students and the Struggle for Democracy in China (University
of California Press, 1994), that impressed both sociologists (it won a major
sociology award) and China watchers alike. To date, it remains one of the most
comprehensive chronicles of the so-called Beijing Spring Protests as well as
the most theoretically informed analysis of China’s student-led movement.

On the 18th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, which took place on June 4,
ssrc.org asked Calhoun, who since 1999 has served as president
of the Social Science Research Council, a few questions about his memories of
that period and how he now views his landmark study.

Does it seem as though Tiananmen took place as long as 18 years
ago? It hardly seems possible. But one of my students from that period, Yang Guobin, is now a
professor at Barnard College. This means enough time has passed for him to get
two Ph.D.s (one in China and one here), find an academic job, and qualify for
tenure.

Did you witness firsthand the violence in Tiananmen
Square? The name "Tiananmen Massacre" and the idea of a
massacre of students are misleading at best and nearly a myth. There was
actually very little violence in Tiananmen Square itself. Most of the students
had withdrawn before the army moved in to occupy the Square, especially in
Muxidi, and those killed were largely workers and local residents. Also, it's
important to point out, as I do in my book, that no one was an eyewitness to
most of this because the violence took place in widely dispersed settings.
Eyewitnesses have a worm's eye view, not a bird's eye view. As far as my own
participation went on that day, I marched along with the protesters. I sat in
Tiananmen Square with those occupying it. I joined in conversations, shared
mood swings from enthusiasm to fear, and watched nervously with others when the
army made its presence felt.

What was it that led you, a non-China expert, to analyze and
write about what happened? I went to Beijing in the spring of 1989 to teach comparative cultural studies
at Beijing Foreign Studies University. It was a part of a new program that had
been created by the Center for Transcultural
Studies in Chicago. But shortly after my arrival, the democracy movement
impinged on my daily routine. It was all around me; my students were involved.
I spent hundreds of hours talking with students not only at my university but
at others, especially Beijing University. Through students I also met various
movement leaders. I had long worked on popular protest and struggles for
democracy, so of course I found it exciting to witness the movement close up
and watch it grow. I was also very sad to see it culminate in tragedy.

Were you surprised that your book was such a
success? My goal in writing this book was less to be a "success" than to be true to the
story I had witnessed firsthand and to the people I had talked to doing my
research. This meant not only narrating, but asking what issues and conditions
lay behind the surface.

Was it intimidating to enter the China studies field as a
non-Sinologist? Yes. It's a field of enormous complexity and depth of scholarship. I did worry
that people in China studies would see me as an interloper and be
suspicious. On the other hand, I was a comparative researcher who had written
on social movements elsewhere so I brought that expertise. I tried to do my
homework and make it clear that for much context and background, I was drawing
on the work of scholars in the field of China studies. I also tried to be
honest about my own limitations as a non-sinologist. I had spent time in China
before, though, and studied Chinese, so I was not quite a novice either.

Can you give us an example of the China experts whose work you
drew on? To discuss the templates offered by previous protest movements in China, for
example, I drew on studies by Jeffrey Wasserstrom and John Israel.

How well have your words stood the test of
time? I am very pleased with how well this book stands as an account of the movement.
There is little I would change, though a few facts have become known since. Of
course there is lots to say now about the implications and consequences of the
movement—and about the actual paths of development, growing rule of law, and
even steps towards democracy that China has in fact followed in the last 18
years.

In your introduction to the book, you say that the student
protesters made an "extraordinary statement that will continue to move Chinese
aspirants to democracy for generations." Against the background of China’s
transformation into economic juggernaut and its impending hosting of the
Olympic games, does the legacy of the students live on, or is it gradually
fading?China’s economic growth is in part a legacy of the
Tiananmen protests, ironically enough. In the early 1990s, one of the Chinese
government’s motivations for easing credit and speeding up economic
liberalization was to take the country’s focus off of political repression.
There has been considerable, mostly quiet, progress towards rule of law in
China and this is a basis for gradual democratization. But there are likely to
be times in the future when Chinese people face crises and seek inspiration and
models for popular action. Tiananmen will be powerful as an example of peaceful
protest and democratic aspirations. The generation of students who participated
is not likely to succeed to power in China, but like the Red Guard generation
before them, which underwent an even more powerful experience, they have been
changed as individuals and this biographical experience will shape their
activities throughout their lives.

What do you make of the recent protests in Hong Kong over the
remarks by the pro-Beijing politician Ma Lik denying that any kind of massacre
took place? Efforts to deny the June 4th incident are still a sore point. It will be a
crucial and helpful step when China's government finally acknowledges the truth
of this history. It will make not only reconciliation but the continued
strengthening and democratization of China more likely.

Do you intend to write another book on this
theme? On Tiananmen? I don’t think so. On struggles for democracy, yes.

The title of Craig Calhoun’s prize-winning book derives from the Chinese
version of “The Internationale”: “There has never been a savior, nor should we
rely on gods and emperors. To create happiness for humankind, we must rely on
ourselves.” Though an old socialist song, the sentiments applied to China’s
protesting students in 1989, Calhoun writes. Buy this book on Amazon.

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